The thoradromi (/ˈθɔrədroʊmi/) is a pale green stranger composed of a doughy, plasticine substance. Its stretchy body is foam-like, with a pure white interior, and no internal organs. Its size, stripe width, and shade of green vary between individuals, as does the number of legs and overall shape. Despite these variations in appearance, groups of individuals tend to display similar or identical stripe patterning amongst themselves.

The thoradromi's odor is markedly artificial, like cheap rubber, and due to this strong stench, its presence causes headaches, nausea, and light-headedness. In addition, its flesh is a noted carcinogen, and even brief contact raises the risk of skin and bone cancer by 4.8%.

The thoradromi is difficult to kill, for although its body is soft enough to be cut by a butter knife, it possesses notable regenerative ability, and recovers from most wounds within seconds. It turns hard and black when fire is applied to its body, but returns to its normal color and composition once the flame is removed. Even with the thoradromi's strong regenerative properties, however, sunlight proves a great danger to this stranger, and it bubbles, dries out, and loses color after thirty minutes of exposure. Otherwise, it is unaffected by exposure to all other light.

Although the thoradromi's voice is androgynous and melodic, it is nonetheless unpleasant to listen to due to its disordered phonetic patterns and irregular cadence. The thoradromi has no set language, and no two individuals share the same phonetic palette.

environment and generation

The thoradromi can be found in a wide variety of indoor and outdoor locations, but is almost always found against a fence or wall, with 45% of thoradromi appearing in corners. It appears in the shade 97% of the time, and due to its inability to withstand sunlight, cannot survive in any area which receives more than a few minutes of direct sunlight at a time.

A newly-generated thoradromi grows with fitful bubbling motions until it reaches full size, a process which can take anywhere between fifteen minutes and two weeks. Groups tend to reach maturity at around the same time.

behaviour

The thoradromi possesses a lazy and inert disposition. It spends its life in a prone position, from which it talks at random to itself and any nearby thoradromi. Although it is stronger than many full-grown men, and able to move itself in theory, locomotion has never been observed. The thoradromi does not move even when exposed to direct sunlight, and instead, flails and lets out plaintive, pleading articulations as its body sizzles in the light.

The thoradromi's laziness and hunger are matched only by its perverse desire to insert objects into its body, and it always picks up and pushes into itself any object within reach, down to tiny rocks and crumbs. The thoradromi's foamy inner flesh dissolves all matter absorbed into itself, with less dense matter dissolving at a faster rate. Thus, while a piece of metal may take weeks to dissolve, an apple deliquesces in under a minute.

Due to its great strength, the thoradromi is able to pick up any object equal to its own weight, and has been known to pull small pieces of furniture, bits of scrap metal, and even parts of appliances into its body. Despite this, the thoradromi prefers smaller objects which can be absorbed whole, as opposed to larger objects, which must be inserted into its body in gradual pushes in order to dissolve in their entirety.

The thoradromi displays several social behaviours. Individuals sometimes push objects into nearby companions, or fight over coveted objects. Laughter and shared singing is also heard among groups, and nearby individuals always laugh when one of their companions is hurt or killed by exposure to sunlight.

Each thoradromi has a specific kind of object it enjoys above all else, which can be as general as a book, or as specific as a red checker. It moans in pleasure when this favored item presses into it, and lets out a slow shudder of contentment once the object disappears inside. The thoradromi often drives its favorite sort of object in and out of its body for several minutes in a kind of crude, self-stimulatory manner, as any companions look on, their mouths held open in voyeuristic shock.

The thoradromi also stretches towards and grabs at any living creature nearby, regardless of whether it can reach them or not, and always consumes any animal it can get its hands on. It seems to take great pleasure in snatching bugs from the air, the smallest of which it absorbs into its palm by clenching its hand into a fist.

interactions with sensitives

The thoradromi speaks with bold excitement and pounds its fists on the ground when it sees a sensitive, as though beckoning them over. As soon as the sensitive comes within range, the thoradromi reaches forward with quick, deliberate grabbing motions. Although the thoradromi's immobile nature makes it easy to avoid, its strong grip and ability to lift its own body weight makes it difficult to escape from.

Contact with the thoradromi's flesh is excruciating, as it eats through muscle tissue at a rate of 0.3 inches per minute. Most victims die of shock within several minutes, with the thoradromi inserting its hands into the sensitive's mouth or ears to speed up the onset of death.

The thoradromi expresses utter emotional agony when a sensitive does escape its grasp, and, in its rage, pounds at the ground or even strikes its companions with heavy objects. When it does manage to devour a sensitive, however, it displays both relief and fatigue, and does not grab at any further beings or objects for two to five days. After it absorbs a person, its internal flesh turns bright red for several weeks, and its skin takes on a reddened hue around the mouth, as though it has just eaten an enormous meal and cannot be bothered to clean its face.

aging and death

As the thoradromi ages, it loses its ability to dissolve objects, and its body becomes less able to reform itself when damaged. Despite this, the thoradromi continues to push objects into itself, inadvertently injuring its own body in the process. Thoradromi that are unable to destroy themselves in this manner eventually slow down and die on their own.

After death, the thoradromi's corpse hardens into a foamy and inflexible substance, which nearby thoradromi tear up in chunks and push into their bodies with a slow, sobbing shudder. When not absorbed by its companions, the thoradromi's corpse breaks apart and decomposes on its own over the course of several months, leaving nothing behind but a pile of harmless, non-toxic grit.